Indycar throws the gauntlet

Indycar will offer a cool 5 million bucks to anyone who can come from another race series and win their finale at Vegas (fittingly). That's a huge chunk of change considering the Daytona 500 awarded just over 1 million to its winner.

Indycar is quickly regaining strength but obviously still needs all the promotion it can get. Question is, do you think this will sway any big names to try their luck? Also,who would you like to see try out an Indycar?

You know, Tony Stewart looks like he's lost about 40 pounds....hmm..

http://indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-indycar-series/41416-5-million-challenge-catch-is-win-the-race/

dunno, I bet pastranas media people say hes thinking about it, Ken Block will buy an old one and drift it around a segway, and Foust will drift one hes never driven before down a canyon in Cali

JPM and Ganassi

Damn, that's cool. I could see a number of teams/drivers putting something together to try this.

All hype, no substance. It's absurd to think anyone could hop into an Indycar for one race and be competitive on a team they haven't worked with before. Only driver that might be able to is Sam Hornish and only because of his Penske connection and his experience. Juan Montoya might be able to, but he's still a long shot. If it was a road course, I'd say it was a bit more open, but you're just not going to beat Ganassi or Penske's teams on an oval, especially when they've been working together all season long and know thier cars inside and out.

Any given Sunday man, any given Sunday (see 2011 Daytona 500, Giants over Pats Super Bowl, etc, etc).

ncjay wrote: All hype, no substance. It's absurd to think anyone could hop into an Indycar for one race and be competitive on a team they haven't worked with before. Only driver that might be able to is Sam Hornish and only because of his Penske connection and his experience. Juan Montoya might be able to, but he's still a long shot. If it was a road course, I'd say it was a bit more open, but you're just not going to beat Ganassi or Penske's teams on an oval, especially when they've been working together all season long and know thier cars inside and out.

I think that's the point. With all the nascar fans reminding everyone that imports fail badly.

As for substance- $5M?

that's a much smaller gaunlet than the one they were talking about throwing down- $20million to any driver that can win the NASCAR Coca Cola 600 and Indy 500 on the same weekend..

novaderrik wrote: that's a much smaller gaunlet than the one they were talking about throwing down- $20million to any driver that can win the NASCAR Coca Cola 600 and Indy 500 on the same weekend..

Yeah, but winning the Coca Indy 1100 is a much harder task than winning one small race in the desert. I would say it is EASILY more than 4 times less difficult to win the Vegas race than it would be to win both races in one day.

First of all, the fatigue of traveling back and forth over the course of practices, qualifying and the race would be killer. Secondly, you HAVE to be in a competitive team for both races (Ganassi or Penske...that's IT). Thirdly, you have to have nature on your side. If it rains AT ALL in Indianapolis, you are going to miss the start of the 600. If there are too many cautions, you miss the start of the 600. If you get taken out by Marco Andretti or Paul Menard, you get boned out of 20 mil, AND a car.

i don't think the Coca Cola 600 is run on the same day as the Indy 500 any more- NASCAR has a thing for night races that show during prime time whenever possible, so i think they run that one saturday night.

if Indycar and NASCAR really wanted to do something cool, they'd get together and have both of their Indy races on the same weekend- a NASCAR/Indycar double bill at the Brickyard would draw some seriously huge numbers andm ake it possible for some cross pollination of drivers from one series to the other.. but i don't think Indycar will move the 500 to a different weekend, and the NASCAR fanbase would openly rebel against changing their traditional Memorial Day weekend race..

Haha, given that Indycar just pulled all their ISC (France Family) owned tracks for this year, I don't think either series is going to be jumping at the chance to work with each other anytime soon. It'd be a cool idea though. Ooh, you could run the stock cars on an oval, and the indycars on the infield road course, with a huge bonus to sweep the weekend.

They could run it at Indy, Daytona, NH, Milwaukee, Pocono, all kinds of cool places.

Where are the AJ Foyts of the world now?

This was routine for him BITD, wasn't it???

OK GRMers, let's put Randy Pobst and Andy Pilgrim in IndyCar at Vegas. Jaques Villeneuve? Nigel Mansell?

John Ames?

Scott Pruett?

Jim Pettengill wrote: OK GRMers, let's put Randy Pobst and Andy Pilgrim in IndyCar at Vegas. Jaques Villeneuve? Nigel Mansell? John Ames? Scott Pruett?

Some say his answer is always Miata...

...and that he is hotlinked for your pleasure

All we know is--he's called The Stig!!!

Like James said, I'd put the 5 million here.

^^^^^Yes, He can do it. Probably out of spite mostly to the detractors!

and behind closed doors they've offered $500k to the backmarker who puts the out-of-series leader into the wall on the last lap.

C'mon Harry Gant!

novaderrik wrote: i don't think the Coca Cola 600 is run on the same day as the Indy 500 any more- NASCAR has a thing for night races that show during prime time whenever possible, so i think they run that one saturday night.

Nope, both events are scheduled for May the 29th. They have always been held on the same day.

Oh, looks like F1 is on hiatus for that weekend. Maybe Lotus will drop a Nick Heidfeld or a Vitaly Petrov into the car for Indy. They seem to be racing everything these days, so maybe they should try to run the Coke 600 too!

Would be interesting.

gamby wrote: Where are the AJ Foyts of the world now? This was routine for him BITD, wasn't it???

Closest we have now is Tony Stewart.

Last year,when Nascar was at NH, a sprint car, sponsored by Tony was running at a small dirt track,with a very talented young lady driver, in upstate NY. Tony flew down and drove the backup car in the race.

I hate to say it, but I think the one person who could pull this off would be Kyle Busch...

Maroon92 wrote: Oh, looks like F1 is on hiatus for that weekend. Maybe Lotus will drop a Nick Heidfeld or a Vitaly Petrov into the car for Indy. They seem to be racing everything these days, so maybe they should try to run the Coke 600 too! Would be interesting.

Hadn't checked the schedule myself, but I read elsewhere that there is a conflict (perhaps with Korea). If so, that does mean there is a day's worth of time difference so it "could" be possible. Then again, after Kubica's extracuricular debacle it seems doubtful any F1 team would release drivers for an IndyCar race.

How 'bout Kimi? He likes a good challenge if the money is right.......

I would like to see Valentino Rossi or Nicky Haden give it a try. Rossi is pretty good in a rally car.